The invention relates to the treatment of tobacco in general, and more particularly to improvements in methods of and in apparatus for breaking up bales of condensed or compacted tobacco, especially relatively dry tobacco.
As used herein, the term "tobacco" is intended to denote natural, reconstituted and artificial tobacco including tobacco leaves, tobacco leaf laminae (tobacco leaves without ribs), tobacco ribs, parts of tobacco leaves, laminae and ribs, tobacco foils and/or other smokable materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,948 to Beard et al. and published European patent application No. 0 159 836 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,676) propose to subdivide bales, which contain tobacco leaves or portions of tobacco leaves, into slices by cutting the bales in planes extending in parallelism with the layers of tobacco particles in the bales. Thus, the dimensions of the thus obtained slices match the dimensions of the respective bales with the sole exception of their thickness, i.e., the combined thickness of the slices which are obtained as a result of subdivision of a bale matches the thickness of the original bale. The thus obtained slices are thereupon introduced into loosening drums of the type disclosed, for example, in published European patent application No. 0 101 271 to be moisturized and, if necessary, heated in order to effect a loosening of the bonds between neighboring particles preparatory to further processing.